She is a COSMONAUT, show some GODDAMN RESPECT:
Serova has been barraged with questions focusing on her gender and how she will manage to bond with her 11-year-old daughter while she is away. She even offered to give a demonstration of washing her hair in space.
But her patience appeared to run out at a pre-launch press conference in Baikonur on Wednesday when a journalist asked her to comment again on how she would look after her hair aboard the International Space Station and whether she would keep her current style.
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Robin Wasserman on girl trouble and mass hysteria:
I first heard most of these stories in college, in a class in the history of psychology, and they stayed with me — not because of any feminist awakening or post-adolescent empathetic rage, but thanks to a memorable night when feverish exam prep gave way to several hours of what my friends and I called Madness Charades. We were exactly those kind of nerds, and we were, by that point in the year, our own brand of hysterical. There was something about these women we’d studied, about the apparent distance between us — diligent, well-behaved, on-track good girls — and them. We enacted and embodied the madwomen of history and drove ourselves to fits of laughter, imagining such a thing as loss of control. We converted their pain into our entertainment: Here is the schizophrenogenic mother; here is Charcot’s hysteric; here is Dora, unable to voice her desire and pain. We wore misery and madness like a costume, young enough and lucky enough to pretend that was all it could ever be, something to be put on and taken off at will. We didn’t think about history as an unbroken line, about old-fashioned, “retrograde and non-womyn-empowering” misogyny or gendered oppression or the pathologizing of feminine dissatisfaction. That was all safely in the past; it couldn’t possibly apply to us.
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We can talk about Scandal on Monday morning, but you are allowed to express yourself today in SINGLE WORD COMMENTS.
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I…no words. Literally no words.
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Mallory here. Remember Ed Champion, the guy who wrote (“wrote” is too nice a word for what he did, let’s go with “computered”) that vile and sexually explicit essay smearing Emily Gould back in June? Guess what he’s up to now: threatening to publish nude pictures of a female writer on Twitter.
I would like to go on record as being firmly against this.
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she is who she is:
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The Toast unconditionally supports female librarians against all comers.
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This list of Leslie Knope’s feminist credentials needs to be EIGHTEEN TIMES LONGER, but it’s a start.
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I am an expert on bedbug stories bc I read all of them, and this one chilled me to the marrow AND made me so angry on the author’s behalf:
So we called the property manager, and she said the owner would meet us at the cabin to inspect it. He was aggressive and said he had to see live bugs. At this point, we’d all taken hundreds of photos of bedbugs we saw and bites we had. Then the guy didn’t show up! We called the owner, and he said he was eating lunch and would come over when he wasn’t hungry! My friend who rented the place stayed there to wait for him, and the rest of us went to the laundromat. When the owner finally showed up, he told my friend he didn’t have the money to give us a refund. He asked if he could pay us back in installments. She said yes and asked if she could have that promise in writing. He said no and told her to leave the premises. None of our emails or phone calls have been returned by the property manager or owner since. However, the owner did send my friend a weird text on Monday, saying that he would pay her back on September 1 and October 2. She emailed him back to ask for our money now, and got no response.
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ugh the bees are recovering fuck them all
Tags: feminism, link roundup, the internet
Ugh. I am not nearly as badass as a cosmonaut, but I have also had the experience of starting a long field expedition and being asked by male crew mates if I would be wearing makeup. 🙁
Disgusting. I mean, WHY? Will you be repulsed by my natural face? (Don’t care.) Do you want a “pretty girl” to fill your masturbatory fantasies while on an expedition? (Don’t care.) Will you be forced to confront uncomfortable feelings that possibly I am on equal – or better – footing with you, A Man, simply because I am not wearing eyeliner and therefore do not live up to your limited understanding of femininity? (Don’t care.)
YUP. I think I just laughed. A cold, heartless laugh. There is no place for the male gaze in science.
*Thumbs up*
I’m sorry people said that crap to you… (If I were in that situation, I’d respond by wearing black lipstick every day and staring at them until their souls melted.) There was a great thing I saw on tumblr about men and makeup, something along the lines of “Do men think my eyelids are actually blue?” And then it got reblogged with the addition, “Babies don’t understand object permanence.”
I was ranting about how stupid makeup in the field was to my cousin’s wife – and ahahaha, oops, she wears make-up every day as a field archeologist.
It does confuse me; how do you put on the midday coat of sunscreen if you’re wearing make-up? How do you lave off poison oak if you’re wearing stuff that requires cold cream to remove?
Was this when you went to the frozen south? “HAHA, YES, I WILL BE USING SOME OF MY EXTREMELY SKIMPY PERSONAL LUGGAGE ALLOTMENT TO BRING UNGUENTS AND CREAMS THAT CHARM MEN.”
“Man-Charming Unguents” would be a great name for a lesbian metal band.
Too busy hiking to glaciers to collect tiny plants to worry about skin care (but yes, sunscreen is a must!)
It’s not for men!!! It is a problem if other women take the stance that a woman wears makeup to attract guys or because she is vain. I do think that opinion is as misguided as the men’s. A woman might do it to be comfortable .Maybe it’s a relaxing routine. Maybe it keeps her from going insane in the hellish freezer of Antarctica. I can’t say. And you can totally pat sunscreen overtop!
Plus almost no one uses cold cream anymore. Let’s not judge so quickly.
It is not for the men!
I have known several people who 1) blow dry their hair daily 2) straighten their hair and/or 3) wear full makeup in the field. It fascinates me. I don’t wear makeup in the field but I wear it and dress “fancy” in town, to the point where people who meet me in one situation often don’t recognize me in the other.
Ugh re: bedbug stories. I got an email from my nursing supervisor last night basically saying “Hey, can you see Mrs. xxxx tomorrow because she’s got bedbugs and her regular nurse is on vacation and everyone else refuses to see her and you’re so nice! PS the bedbug problem is really bad, so prepare yourself. K thnx bye”
So I’m going Missy Elliot puffy garbage bag style to work today I guess. Untouchable.
Were it possible, I’d give you a Tyvek suit to wear in there Breaking Bad style.
Oh, I’ve got one! It’s protocol for bedbug infestations! And little booties to cover our shoes.
You are a hero, and I’m glad there’s a protocol in place to protect you.
“I’m not that nice.”
Amen.
Maybe this is an unfortunately low bar, but I am just so happy that in SC they have *fired that dude’s ass and indicted him.* I mean, that should not be too much to ask, but I usually assume it’s not going to happen, and it just makes my damn day when it does. Am I going to have to quit talking shit about South Carolina? I’m leaving my options open.
Also, Nicole’s ANTI-BEE AGENDA is becoming quite concerning. Why all this hate for nature’s most useful matriarchy?
ME TOO. I mean, I was horrified that he shot him in the first place, but my thoughts reading it were, ‘well, AT LEAST he’s going down for it.’
Jones was still calling the guy who shot him “sir” and saying “I’m sorry.” Right after he got shot! For a SEAT BELT VIOLATION.
I just…everything is horrible and I hate it.
Blanket fort.
I know.
I know.
That was somehow the most horrible part, wasn’t it? Well, maybe not, but still. Just really, awfully sad to see him having to negotiate the situation like that right after he’d been SHOT FOR NO REASON.
The other horrible part was that he apologized and the cop never did.
TO THE PARTY NUNNERY
I was a teensy bit proud of SC for this small step. Obviously the officer’s actions are still indicative of the same damn problem, but at the very least, no one is hiding him, no one is giving him the benefit of the doubt. I truly truly hope that we’re able to carry this through to it’s correct conclusion.
In other SC news, there’s a really sad situation in Clemson right now where a fraternity pledge died of an apparent fall during a group exercise run. Almost without hesitation, the university suspended all Greek Life activities until they are able to determine if it was remotely related to hazing. So another situation that never should have happened, but the response has at least been swift and correct.
But yeah, keep your options open, the week isn’t over yet.
As a South Carolinian, I say, no, no you do not have to quit talking shit about South Carolina. We elected Mark Sanford to high office. TWICE. There is not enough shit for the Palmetto State.
The bees are recovering! Maybe we’re not completely fucked after all!
This is actually the best news since forever. Yay!
Related: I did not know you could rent bee colonies! That is really cool!
Agreed! Hooray bees!!!
My office has bedbugs! EVERY DAY the ladies in the office bring me stories of bedbugs, dead, alive, found on computers and under desks, found in the lunchroom and in the bathroom, EVERY DAY the bedbugs are getting closer and closer to my desk.
Even when I can’t see them, I know that they are producing millions of tiny, invisible eggs, covering my chair with them, they’re getting stuck on my clothes, I’m BRINGING THEM HOME AND AM GOING TO BE SURROUNDED BY BEDBUGS.
I am so fucking stresesd out about this.
holy shit is your office doing anything about it??????
I don’t know. I work for the state, so stuff like this always takes forever to resolve, since no one wants to be the guy who was holding office when we had to lay out a whole bunch of extra money for fumigation.
I am expecting an email about making sure my pants are tucked into my socks any day, though.
Yeah but it’s gonna be cheaper to just deal with the office than paying for the office to get treated, AND everyone’s homes.
Oh, definitely, obviously the most sensible and common sense approach to state and government budgeting is to invest a small amount in preventative maintenance now, rather than risk some catastrophic expense in the future.
It probably will not surprise you to know that this is…not how they do it.
Government budgeting! The most efficient way to do absolutely anything.
And this is what is wrong with the world in a nutshell: it’s a better political move to be the official who ignored the problem (and its moderately costly solution) than to be the official who solved the problem.
Ugh this is horrible – can you lay a Maginot line of dia earth around your office?
I have cemented the cannon emplacements already.
Honestly though, if you’re concerned about bringing them home you could try having two “work outfits” sealed in plastic garbage bags you change into as out the door as possible, and strip off and back into the bags and run to the shower as soon as you get home. This is what friends of mine who have worked in bedbug-infested SROs have done with good success.
I mean, that is a good idea, but you are definitely pitching it to a guy who has worn the same pair of jeans for three weeks.
That actually makes it easier, because you probably only need one “work outfit.”
Henceforth, they’ll be known as my “bedbug jeans”.
omg, this made me laugh and shudder so hard.
I’M SO UPSET
NIGHTMARE
It’s like getting dispatches from the front lines.
“Did you hear? The bedbugs have taken Flanders. They’re moving down the Rhine!”
“How long can the allies stand?”
TAKE TO THE SEA
NO. Noooooooooooooooooooooo.
Ahhh I’m so sorry!! I hope your office is working on it!!!
Good grief. That would make my skin crawl just being there. Sorry, that’s probably not helpful to say stuff like that. But I hope they get rid of them soon!
AAAAAH nope nope nope. I would never set foot in that building again.
I picked up bedbugs in a hostel once, but thank god they never made it into my house .I was able to nuke my sleeping bag and all my clothes in a dryer, and that got rid of them. Still one of the worst experiences – for months afterward I played the game of “is it a bedbug or is it lint?”
Closely related to another game, the ever-popular “is it a tick or is it a freckle?”
And scored similarly to the post-elementary-school-visit classic “lice or dandruff?”
OMG No. NO nonono NOPE NO.
::hides under desk, but realizes THAT’S JUST WHAT THEY WANT YOU TO DO::
Can you ask to work from home.. forever? o_O
That is the worst thing I have heard all day, ARGH!!!
One day a couple weeks ago my office landlord was like “hey by the way I’m sending a bedbug inspector around the building” and my officemates flipped our collective shit and basically decided that if there was any evidence of bedbugs anywhere in the building we were all working from home until we could move offices. How are you still attending work when there are ACTUAL BEDBUGS IN YOUR OFFICE???
used up all my vacation time preparing for kidney surgery, so the choice is now between “risk getting infested with bedbugs” / “don’t eat for the next month.”
Don’t get me wrong, I thought real hard about it.
I’ll send you $20 if it makes the decision easier.
Quick! Get yourself some diatomaceous earth!
Example: http://www.badbedbugs.com/how-to-get-rid-of-bed-b…
I work in San Francisco in a field where bed bugs are an issue that comes up a lot. As a result, I’ve learned more about them than I ever wished to know. (For one thing, their mating habits are horrifying.) One thing I’ve learned is that the best defense is a good offense – prevent an infestation before it starts if at all possible, because once you’ve got bed bugs, they’re incredibly hard to get rid of. Fumigation doesn’t work. Intense heat and cold are the only treatments that really seem to be effective, and the treatments require tenant/occupants to vacate the premises for weeks at a time. The folks I work with who have been plagued by bed bugs have found diatomaceous earth to be an effective barrier, especially in preventing bed bugs in one area from migrating to another and in keeping an infestation from spreading.
Good luck!
And I would recommend getting bedbug-proof mattress covers if you don’t have them already!! They’re kind of pricey, but less pricey than a new mattress (and less gross than just ending up having to cover your buggy mattress with one anyway if you get infested).
You speak truth about prevention. Also, bedbug sex:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVpSoHubwTY
DDG tells me permethrin kills bedbugs. I would recommend getting some and treating your work clothes and any fabric (carpet, cube walls) in your work vicinity.
“https://duckduckgo.com/?q=”permethrin bedbugs”
http://www.amazon.com/s/?tag=duc0c-20&url=sea…
Edit: sorry for the link formatting. The comment box seems to be stripping/adding html. This happening to anyone else?
So, um, is what Twitter DoucheBro doing…legal? It seems like that is something that should not be legal. What’s the word I’m looking for here–extortion, that’s the word I’m looking for.
Lawyers Of The Toast, does that word mean what I think it means?
Sounds like blackmail to me,but my entire legal education has been in working at law firms, but not actually being a lawyer, so I may be wrong
His Twitter account has now been suspended, so it seems like they seem to agree that he’s done something wrong. (Which, from the little I know about Twitter, is a rare occurence.)
I’m at work and am afraid to look up what’s going on in case there is anything salacious that might get picked up on – what’s this dude’s deal, he’s some butthurt asshole threatening to publish a “compromising” picture of a woman who publicly disagreed with him?
My understanding – and this is just based on what I saw last night on the Twitter, was that the woman he was harassing (This time! She was just the latest of apparently many!), is an author. Dickbag is a publisher, or works for a publisher? And believed himself, it seems, solely responsible for any success this author’s book was having. She made what he perceived as a slight on him (deleted a Facebook comment he’d written that insulted someone) and then he went totally nuclear with the threats. Fucking disgusting.
“Serova has been barraged with questions focusing on her gender and how she will manage to bond with her 11-year-old daughter while she is away.
Once they’re 11, haven’t you already (hopefully) bonded? And if you haven’t, I think being a cosmonaut is the least of your problems.
(The link to Leslie Knope’s feminist credentials appears to be missing.)
(I think it’s this one: http://magazine.good.is/articles/leslie-knope-fem…
Weird, yours doesn’t exist either!
http://magazine.good.is/articles/leslie-knope-fem…
It does, it just attracted a stray bracket. Try this one: http://magazine.good.is/articles/leslie-knope-fem…
I think 11 is around the age a lot of girls start having occasional thoughts of shooting their mothers into space anyway. Puberty’s a bitch.
My solution to that bedbug thing would be to spray paint the cabin with warnings of the bedbugs. If they don’t have the money to give you a refund, they probably don’t have the money to remove the warnings (or sue you. But if they did try to sue, you could countersue pretty easily, probably. I dunno, I’m not a lawyer).
Bees are awesome. Sure, so I swell up like a balloon when they sting me, but I fully admit that it’s my problem, not theirs, and I love them.
I’m sure they love you back. Have some honey. (I love bees too; they are like tiny, stubborn, teddy bears who don’t give a shit about anyone except their hive, who can’t be arsed to fly AROUND your head instead of into it and who make sugary things through the means of dancing, flying and sitting in flowers.)
I definitely go to great lengths to provide lots of places for them to do their thing, so possibly they appreciate my efforts!
“That’s a you problem, not a bee problem.”
EXCELLENT.
*chuckle*
I don’t watch Scandal anymore, but does anyone want to talk about Nashville? 😀
Uncanny article timing, I just had a bedbug nightmare last night (they still linger, a year and a half later) and I’m so curious to read that story but will it really be good for my psyche? I mean I’m pretty sure the dream last night was triggered simply by a friend talking about thrift store shopping. So paranoid forever now 🙁
Yes, I watched it last night, and [heart eyes]! I wish Rayna would have said no to both of the guys, but whatever, totally not surprised. And I hope everything is ok for Will, who I always want to call Luke because of The OC, but there is another Luke. And LORD I hope they just let Juliette’s baby be Avery’s.
Ahhh that’s what I was wishing for too! Girl deserves to just be on her own for awhile. The Will story makes me sad 🙁
Oh lord I forgot the baby might not be Avery’s!!! In other news at least Scarlett and Gunnar were being a bit less annoying than usual this episode.
I SO BADLY want Scarlett & Gunnar to get back together. How am I so invested in them.
Oh man, astro/cosmo/taikonauts are the coolest. I still have trouble wrapping my mind around the fact that people have actually gotten to the moon using machinery that had less computing power than the average cellphone today. There are footprints on the moon because people walked all over its face!!! So the fact that there are people actually LIVING IN SPACE!!! ORBITING 100 MILES ABOVE US AS I TYPE THIS!!! is just… the coolest thing I can think of. Wow.
Also, this is silly, and I definitely don’t want to join the ranks of the Vile Males asking stupid questions of Serova the BAMF, but I’m wondering now, how does getting your period work on the ISS? If there’s no gravity, does it just pool up like a floating sphere of blood? Does it get suctioned out when the astronaut uses the space toilet and then recycled back into drinking water like the rest of the liquid waste? I need to know now.
I’m pretty sure gravity isn’t [all of] what works to get your period out of your body (just like swallowing isn’t all gravity), but beyond that, I have no earthly idea. INTERESTING QUESTIONS.
I have no earthly idea
I SWEAR IT WAS AN ACCIDENT
I get really emotional thinking about space and thinking about how maybe someday I can go to space and space *swoons*
SAME. I realize that a person who needs prescription sedatives to be able to endure a transatlantic flight has no business blasting through the atmosphere on a Soyuz rocket. But the dream will not die. SPACE!
Man, if that opportunity ever arises, I will even stop bitching about how much I hate Elon Musk for a hot minute to take one of those SpaceX flights. We can be sweet civilian astronauts. SPACE!!!!
From reading books like Packing for Mars, I don’t know if they deal with it–I think female astronauts use hormonal birth control to stop their periods to avoid the problem entirely. I mean, I hate dealing with that shit enough right on Earth, if there was even a chance that there would be space blood floating around I would take as many pills as necessary to stop that shit.
Yes, but on the upside: men being forced to drink your menstrual blood.
I have no knowledge of this, but I can say, were I working on a space station, I’d take measures to eliminate my period for the duration. Between the lack of showers and a desire to maximize the time spent in space (doing space science, not curled around a space heating pad eating my meager rations of space chocolate), I’d just go ahead and not menstruate.
space chocolate
Apparently, there are no particular issues having your period in space.
“Period in space, just like period on the ground. Don’t worry about it” (You’ve gotta scroll quite a bit down)
I got really interested, and did some googling of my own!
I always want to read about the details of life in space (thank you for filling that need, Mary Roach!), but I find it a bit weird that periods are the only thing discussed under Astronaut Health in that first link. There are so many cool and weird things about astronaut health, don’t just confine yourself to curiousity about Mysterious Female Things.
Yeah, that was a teensy bit odd.
I bet they just get IUDs, that seems like the easiest solution.
Don’t worry though, if you do get your period on the space station, they’ve got you covered.
Engineers asked Ride, “Is 100 the right number?” She would be in space for a week. “That would not be the right number,” she told them.
Ughhh that quote. “That would not be the right number” is such a perfect response though. Go Sally.
She was so class.
That is amazing. I am thinking of the meeting that took place beforehand, like 3 guys who are on the Space Supplies team in some NASA conference room together going over the personal care list and getting to tampons. How long did they talk about it before they were like, “ah, fuck, we have no idea, better send a memo.”
I imagine it more like this:
Hapless dude who was sent to the drug store: So I, uh, got some of the items. *sets plastic bag on table*
Other hapless dude: Right, okay, let’s see. *pulls out one box* Is this enough?
Hapless dude 1: I… don’t know.
Hapless dude 2: *takes out another box* How about this?
HD1: *makes :-S face* Maybe?
HD2: Shit this is hard. *pulls out two more boxes* Now?
HD1: OH GOD I DON’T UNDERSTAND BASIC HUMAN FUNCTIONS I DON’T KNOOOOOW
HD2: *dumps all tampon boxes on the table, starts sobbing*
Monk 1: So, astronaut tampons?
Monk 2: What
Monk 1: Tampons. For astronauts. How many do there need to be again?
Monk 2: Oh, a hundred.
Monk 1: Really? For a week?
Monk 2: Oh definitely. Maybe two hundred to be sure.
You mean you don’t go through 14.28 tampons a day on your period?
Although too many is vastly preferable to not enough.
Was just about to mention that. Oh the things Sally Ride had to endure, and oh the grace in which she endured.
Sally Ride 5eva <3
I saw that bedbug story and immediately posted it to the group facebook chat of my gang of pals who have just VRBO’d a cabin in the Poconos for a long weekend in November.
No one was amused, but apparently there is a registry somewhere and our cabin has never had a report of bedbugs, so yay?
If you want to be extra careful (and this is now what I do because I’m paranoid and taking the perhaps unnecessary precautions helps keep my anxiety in check), only bring clothes that you can put through the heaviest, hottest washer and dryer cycle when you get home. And then blast them. I’ve seen on other websites that you can also leave your luggage in the bathroom since the bastard bugs don’t like tile.
Fun fact though: I had bedbugs a year ago. Immediately called my landlord, he got a guy in. It took the entire summer to get rid of them, but after that first spraying the only place I ever saw them was the bathroom. The bedbug guy said that was a fairly common thing. He guessed it was because the type of pesticide or whatever that they used had a half-life of 90 days (and would stick around to kill any newly hatched suckers), but the humidity of the bathroom diluted it.
Moral of the story: sometimes even the bathroom isn’t safe!
OH GOD they’ve outsmarted us
Since this was the place I was living, not a place I was temporarily staying, I was comforted that they took up camp in the bathroom. I don’t react to the bites, so the biggest issue for me were the psychological effects, thus it actually really helped that I felt “safe” everywhere else in my apartment.
I really hate how every time Edward Champion does a horrible thing and faces backlash for doing a horrible thing, he threatens to kill himself: https://twitter.com/BrandyZadrozny/status/5154671…. I have all the compassion in the world for people with mental illness, but mental illness is not an excuse for being a horrible monster garbage person.
Oh for fuck’s sake, bro.
He is really a nightmare. I probably shouldn’t have read his bitter screed against Emily Gould this summer, but I did and I was pretty blown away by how hateful and misogynistic the whole thing was.
Yeah, at this point I think he has used up any ounce of compassion people might be tempted to feel for him. Mental issues are one thing, but hiding behind them as an excuse when you repeatedly act like a monster is another. At this point, the only response to his suicide threats should be “Well, bye.” If he’s not going to get help, or at the very least stay off the internet and stop extorting and harrassing women then my compassion cup is dry.
Agreed. Not that it solves the issue, but I’m glad his Twitter account has been suspended.
“no likes yet”
what the fuck is that even
“jackals who willfully miscomprehend idiosyncratic voices”
This is one of the best examples I’ve ever seen of wounded rationalization from a man who fancies himself a genius and has just been told that what he’s saying is vile.
Your voice is not idiosyncratic, dude. Sexualized screeds and threats against women you don’t like? You’re more persistently horrible than most, but the EXACT REASON women won’t put up with this is that we face it all the time and we know exactly what it is and what it leads to.
Impossible! All men are complete individuals, absolutely unlike and unaccountable to all other men!
A couple years ago on tumblr, this popular blogger was exposed as having sexually harrassed underaged girls (and I have no compunction whatsoever about saying that his name is JOSH MACEDO and he lives in TORONTO, ONTARIO because he made both those facts public on his blog) and when his ex-girlfriend called him up to go “so, about this . . . ?” his response was “OH I AM A TERRIBLE PERSON I SHOULD JUST KILL MYSELF.”
The result? Instead of having to answer for his shitty, sexually harrassing behaviour, people were outraged that the cruel ravages of tumblr had DRIVEN HIM to such a state. And, iirc, he spent fourty-eight hours under surveillance and the hospital released him without any concerns, so since then I have been DEEPLY suspicious of men who, when confronted with their abusive behaviour, respond with “what if I just KILLED MYSELF I bet you would be SORRY THEN.” It’s basically another abuse tactic: not only are you threatening physical harm to keep your victim in line, you’re burdening them with the responsibility for your actions. Fuck off, bro.
What a fucking pissbaby.
(Also it is super shitty to be that fucking manipulative and pretend to be mentally ill [because he definitely is doint it for sympathy/deflection here] because it kinda a lot contributes to mental health stigma.)
Serova should attend her next interview with some buzz clippers to show these people just how she will care for her hair in space! My God, what is this 1950????
Scandal Schmandal, how about that How To Get Away with Murder????? Dean Thomas is all grown up and looking kind of like a confused baby ostrich! My least favorite recurring Shonda showism is present even though she isn’t the creator. PARIS!!!!! Viola Davis has the best dresses.
This is one of the most important things I learned from my Twitter feed last night.
I’m really good at distilling down to the super important points. (Also I didn’t want to go TOO detailed in a top level comment)
I THOUGHT I saw Dean Thomas in one of the ads! that kid is adorable. (and yeah, also a confused baby ostrich.)
he’s a total cutie, but yeah, Tyra would never have to tell him to give more neck.
Someone who cares about Ed Champion needs to take twitter away from him. Or someone who cares about other people. Either way, it’s in everyone’s best interests.
They did. His account’s been suspended.
Burn it all down.
http://news.distractify.com/mark-pygas/powerful-p…
This has made me happy this morning. 52 pictures of awesome women – some famous, some not.
That link is excellent and I definitely teared up at a few of those photos.
My desk drawer is full of empty Pop-Tarts boxes and an ancient can of Pringles; good thing I haven’t found any abandoned infants lately.
YESSSS THANK YOU.
ahhhh this is perfection. Thank you!
I was gonna make a joke about the Joe Murphy case, and how librarians are good enough at scientific rigor to know the difference between a defamatory statement and a factual one, and thus the women not actually being liable for anything because obviously their entire audience by nature would only believe information that came with citations ….
imma just drink this third coffee, over here
Yeah but one of the wrinkles in this case is that it’s being pursued in Canada, which makes the whole facutal thing less of an issue.
Also, it’s weird to see this here after briefly meeting all these people and hearing about it from my wife for a long time.
ALSO also, who sues an unemployed person for 1.5 million dollars?
You may be right about the burden of proof: the main defense for the ladies is proving that their statements are true.
BUT actually if you want to be a grammar nerd (and oh boy do I ever) all they posted in their tweets and blogs was, let’s see …. tweets alluding to but not naming a sexual predator in the community / profession, and then a blog post that documented the tweets and named the accused predator.
I find it murky, but maybe it’s extraordinarily simple: they documented in writing things that were already being said verbally — not making an accusation per se, but referring to accusations already made, in the form of warnings to women from other women.
Given that they documented something that was true (women WERE warning other women) I don’t think that libel actually exists, because there isn’t an explicit accusation? If there was a defamation case here, it would be the slander that already exists. (OMG so if women come forward to “witness” then he can refocus the suit on them?)
Wait, I’m in a building surrounded by lawyers, brb.
“all the lady librarians already knew I was a creep but once they let THE MEN LIBRARIANS KNOW suddenly I am inconvenienced a million dollars worth”
The Columbia story is awful. What’s more awful is my immediate thought of “Thank god the officer is facing charges, and thank god the man survived.”
I assume people have seen the I am Darren Wilson bracelets?
OH GOOD. Always handy when law enforcement wears a warning saying that they are willing to shoot and kill unarmed civilians. Fantastic.
I stayed up SO LATE last night railing against that abusive shitbag, I blame him for me dragging my butt around this morning. It was worth it, though.
You were a ninja star hurling through the internet right at his crotch. It was so worth it.
God, thank you so much for waiting until Monday to talk about Scandal, we live right now in the golden season of television, in the golden AGE of television, and the only thing I’ve caught all week is half of THIS IS THE VOICE and Wednesday’s Ultimate Fighter. (Which I’m here for, if anyone wants to talk about it and how crazily sexist it is.)
I watched the first episode of Gotham last night, the first of the fall TV shows I’ve been able to watch (hulu!). It was…not good.
It was pretty bad, but I’ll probably keep watching because of Ryan Atwood and Sleepy Hollow. Alfred swearing and yelling at Bruce nearly made me turn it off though. THAT’S NOT ALFRED AT ALL!!!!
I just want a whole show about Jada Pinkett Smith kicking ass and taking names, really.
and Barbara Kean hooking up with Renee Montoya.
SO MUCH THIS
Can’t someone rescue Donal Logue and re-boot Terriers on Netflix or something?
Every time I see him now I just think, “Fuckin’ Terriers, dude.”
I feel like I have a good working knowledge of the internet’s main shitbags, but I am strangely relieved to realize that I have no idea who Edward Champion is.
me neither, and I don’t think I want to go and find out.
Nicole’s stance on bees and Mallory’s stance on composting: two views I have to assume are put on so that they are not _always_ our perfect leaders.
I share Mallory’s anti-composting stance. If each scrap immediately leaves your house and goes in a outdoor composter, that is fine, but none of these fetid buckets of filth living in your kitchen.
Composting is mandatory where I live, so I keep it in the freezer until it goes in the green bin outside. It’s the only way I can keep the smell/flies/curious pets under control.
Freezer composting is a great solution!!
I could NOT handle that bedbugs story. I had a horrible case when I stayed at the one of the world Girl Guide centres in Switzerland when I was 13; literally girls on the trip refused to come near me or talk to me because they thought I had some weird disease. I still have scars, physical and emotional. A month later we heard they had a mattress bonfire. Nope nope nope.
I’ll just leave this here
*scuttles away*
God I love this gif
Never gets old. A+
this is one for the ages. i never tire of it.
it has to be done
also BEADS?
So glad you linked to the story about Lisa Rabey and nina de jesus. Check out #teamharpy on twitter for more updates!
You posted that bedbug story just to get ours, right? I actually have the exterminators coming tomorrow to begin the process of KILL ALL BUGS. I could tell you the whole story but I am tired, so tired, and need to go work out what the cats will do while all this happens. My landlady has been remarkably good (there is no actual evidence of bedbugs except the bites on me and she’s still going with the nuclear option I wanted) but it’s just exhausting to deal with and I am beat.
Ugh. It has been a year since I last saw a bedbug in my own home. I moved from that place a month ago, but I still panic if I see anything that looks remotely like a bedbug. I apparently don’t react to the bites, so my only evidence is mattress/bedsheet stains and actually seeing the little bastards. I saw a weird bug last week, but given that I still see no evidence of them, I am starting to breathe a sigh of relief.
*knock on wood* *fingers crossed* *please oh please oh please god*
I am ready to burn everything I own and start over. I am very reactive to the bites so I can relate to the writer of the story Nicole linked, though fortunately I had a lot fewer bites. I think despite the reaction I’d prefer to have the bites show up rather than be in your shoes, the not knowing and constant possibility would be awful. You have my sympathies.
Okay, Toasties, can we please talk about that Robin Wasserman piece? It is so goddamn good I don’t even know how to articulate it. Cultural analysis of teenage girls that actually treats them as HUMAN BEINGS with AGENCY, WHO KNEW SUCH A THING WAS POSSIBLE.
Last month, I had a couple spots on my side and back (and one on my boob), on the side of my body that I moosh up against the bed when I sleep … they kinda looked and felt like mosquito bites but not as puffy, and clustered together. I wasn’t sure what they were (maybe spider bites), but a coworker said the magic word – BEDBUG? – and I left work early and went to a minute clinic … where I was promptly diagnosed with a mild case of shingles.
I don’t think anyone has ever been happier with a shingles diagnosis.
I am actually jealous of your diagnosis. Pity me.
So, the hilarious Megan Amram put up a part of her new book Science…for Her! and the comments section is almost too entertaining/insane to be real.
http://www.xojane.com/entertainment/megan-amram-s…
I dunno Nicole, I’d rather have real bees than terrifying robot bees that will one day be harnessed by Skynet.
Here’s my old addition to the Leslie-Knope-Rocks-Feminism-List: http://ksek.tumblr.com/post/43993806278/ms-leslie…
(Is there a Toast rule about posting links to your own stuff? Does it help that the link is to a Tumblr that I only post on a few times a year?)
I am not reading that bedbug article. I have been bedbug free for a year, not nearly long enough to not panic when reading anything about it. Nope nope nope.
Getting bedbugs in my apartment really helped move along my attempts at a minimalist lifestyle.
Along the lines of the cosmonaut story, Fox News decided the appropriate response to the United Arab Emirates’ first female fighter pilot, was to refer to her as “boobs on the ground”. This is right after talking about how awful and sexist Arab countries are. http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/fox-hosts-d…
And don’t forget the snarky comment about ‘sure she can fly it, but will she be able to park it?’ Come out to the airport, you pusillanimous pissant, and let’s see who can land that beast in a gorram crosswind. Newsflash: it won’t be you. Fox morons.
I saw that on Jon Stewart and no joke, I just sat there and was open-mouthed, and just looked at the Handsome Sidekick and went, ‘WHAT.’ And then ranted about it for a good couple of minutes after we finished watching because I do NOT GET how people can say that and get away with it, it just blows my mind. I know, the whole free speech thing. But seriously, he is just one ignorant sexist twat, and once again, I can’t help but wonder if it is all an act and they are just hamming it up for ratings, because surely, surely nobody really thinks that this is OK.
Except Rupert, I guess, but can we even really call him a person. It pains me that we share the same accent.
“Disturbing” is the blanket phrase for men describing anything that women do that men don’t understand. I watched Bridesmaids with a guy last night and his assessment was that it was “disturbing.”
I have a deal with spiders and centipedes. They may live in my house unmolested but exchange they must promise that they will immediately eat any bedbugs that might come by.
this sounds like a you problem not a me problem
THIS SOUNDS LIKE A YOU PROBLEM NOT A ME PROBLEM
This is perfection. Will now be impatiently waiting for an opportunity to yell this at somebody. Or maybe just quietly, flatly state it, then mic drop.
I plan to say it with a tone of gentle condescension, and an even gentler little pat on the shoulder.
Ed Champion is maybe not *literally* the worst person in the world, but he sure is sure as shit figuratively the worst person in the world
Better, but needs more flaying alive..
*crashes through your front door* HELLO YES I AM VERY INTERESTRED IN DISCUSSING THE PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN IN HORROR MOVIES. Particularily possession horror like "The Exorcist," "The Last Exorcism," "The Possession," etc. I have a theory that these movies (I call them "white nightgown movies" because WITHOUT FAIL that's what the girl ends up wearing at some point) are a cultural reflection of anxieties people (men) have about women growing up and expressing agency- you notice how in many of these movies, the possessed girl either has no father figure (The Exorcist) or the father figure feels as though he has lost control over his family (The Possession?) And so the girl's declaration of selfhood- which often involves sexual behaviour, swearing, disobedience, etc- is displaced into an outside force that the father/male figure is able to fight against and conquer so that he is the hero of the day and regains control over his wayward daughter's behaviour.
1. The podcast 'Faculty of Horror' is AMAZINGLY suited to this conversation. Two female academics discussing themes in horror movies. Bonus: each episode has 'extra credit' scholarly articles cited. They haven't gone too in-depth into possession yet, but they have mentioned that it mostly happens to women and I think they're going to do an episode in the future. If you go to their website (facultyofhorror.com) you can see I've started leaving essay-length comments with my thoughts (I'm Jess. :))
2. Re: possession, I really like your analysis and definitely think that possession is generally associated with young female characters because like Wasserman's article notes, that's when they are seen to be most vulnerable to various influences. It's so fascinating because on the one hand the world can be really difficult for young women, and the fear and anxiety the women/girls themselves express is something I empathize with, (as someone who grew up and was influenced by society in some lasting/harmful ways), but on the other hand the answer is not to 'save' the girls by refusing to let them change/grow, which is presented as the ideal solution in these possession tales. I think this happens in a lot of the psychological/psychosexual thrillers, too (Black Swan, Stoker, etc.), where, like you note, there is no father figure present, and the young woman spends the entire movie as an object, with things happening to her, rather than having any real agency herself.
Female-led horror podcast you say? *bookmarks*
You know, it's interesting, because female possession narratives also tie a lot into Victorian ideas of feminine hysteria ("women who act sexual are mentally ill!") as well as medieval ideas of women as the fleshier, weaker sex ("Eve ate the apple!") more prone to temptation by the devil. Mostly possession narratives- at least the ones I'm familiar with- take a more Victorian approach, with the girls needing to be put back in their place by male authority figures, but they also rely on the idea of women/girls as weaker and more in danger of corruption. I've got a book on hold at the library right now- Megan Abbott's The Fever– which I know is inspired at least in part by the Salem Witch Trials and the idea of mass hysteria and agency as it pertains to teen girls, so I'm hoping that will offer something of a rebuttal.
(I got into feminist analysis of horror movies because I watched Stigmata for a class I was taking on religion and films, and while that movie bucks some of the trends- the main character is unabashedly sexual and ADULT which is a rarity in possession narratives- it also has an ending that is so egregiously nonsensical and agency-denying that I would have throw the DVD across the room if I hadn't torrented it. And I think that's what fascinates me about horror movies- they have the potential to be deeply feminist in their interrogation of the way women interact with society and the social construction of the monstrous, but they so often default to common, damaging stereotypes. See also: mental hospital horror.)
And I think that's what fascinates me about horror movies- they have the potential to be deeply feminist in their interrogation of the way women interact with society and the social construction of the monstrous, but they so often default to common, damaging stereotypes. See also: mental hospital horror.)
OKAY YES EXACTLY THIS.
This is why I love watching horror movies- because let's face it, the world can be a scary place for girls and women and horror is the genre that (through supernatural/metaphorical means) ADMITS that. The problem, like you say, is that they often end up falling back on tropes that ultimately ruin that message. Some of my favorites (women have agency) are: Silence of the Lambs (though some might not consider that straight up horror, which I get), Candyman, The Descent, Jennifer's Body, The Ring, Black Christmas, etc. I also love Carrie, which obviously has a bunch of messages of its own about female power, and I'm actually really good with the tragic ending because I think it shows just how badly people can react to increasing female power (and justifiable anger).
Question: What do you feel (if you have feelings on this topic) about the more torture-heavy movies like 'Martyrs' or 'Inside,' which focus very much on women and how they suffer? I myself can't actually stomach them, because I feel like it's a lot to get through (watching extensive, detailed torture scenes) with little payoff (yes, I know women are more likely to be tortured/punished by heavily religious sects, yes I know torture is bad, etc.).
I saw that on Jon Stewart and no joke, I just sat there and was open-mouthed, and just looked at the Handsome Sidekick and went, 'WHAT.' And then ranted about it for a good couple of minutes after we finished watching because I do NOT GET how people can say that and get away with it, it just blows my mind. I know, the whole free speech thing. But seriously, he is just one ignorant sexist twat, and once again, I can't help but wonder if it is all an act and they are just hamming it up for ratings, because surely, surely nobody really thinks that this is OK.
Except Rupert, I guess, but can we even really call him a person. It pains me that we share the same accent.